Up 28 to defeat for Nancy: « I’m rather reassured to see that we can produce very high-level play for 25 minutes »

After leading by 28 in the second half, Nancy fell to ASVEL’s dramatic turnaround, though Sylvain Lautié found reassurance in his team’s dominant 25-minute stretch SLUC Nancy experienced an emotional rollercoaster against ASVEL. Long dominant, Sylvain Lautié’s players led by as many as 28 points (59-31) against Betclic ELITE‘s second-best defense. But a second-half collapse, combined with the surge of Glynn Watson Jr. – who was rested Thursday in Valencia – turned the game around.

LIRE AUSSI

Paris Basketball stuns Barcelona at Palau Blaugrana while ASVEL falls to Valencia

13 févr. 2026

Sylvain Sultat

A brilliant SLUC Nancy for 25 minutes

By halftime, Nancy had hung 55 points on an ASVEL team that still looked like it was carrying the weight of its EuroLeague loss in Valencia (82–67). The stat that really jumped, though: one turnover in twenty minutes. That’s not just clean — that’s locked-in. The Lorrains played connected, confident basketball, the kind that forces a favorite to react rather than dictate.

The formula wasn’t complicated, just sharp. They spaced the floor, moved the ball with purpose and shot it well enough from outside to stretch ASVEL’s coverage past its comfort zone. Gentilly fed off it. Landers Nolley, who poured in 29 points, operated like a scorer fully aware of his rhythm — and with it, climbed to the top of the league’s scoring chart at 19.9 per game.

For Sylvain Lautié, speaking to L’Est Républicain, that stretch — those 25 minutes of clarity and control — felt less like a fluke and more like proof of concept.

« We knew they would raise their game. Instead of being patient, we took too long. But we were also short in rotations. We lacked focus on key players. What Watson did in the second half was abnormal. We lacked experience. I’m proud of the guys despite everything. After this game, I’m rather reassured to see that we can produce very high-level play for 25 minutes. »

ASVEL’s brutal awakening

And this is where the gap shows up. Against teams like ASVEL, you don’t get long stretches of imprecision. In the second half, Nancy drifted — 11 turnovers in twenty minutes, the ball sticking, the spacing tightening, the defense slowly buckling under rising pressure. The crispness from the first half evaporated.

ASVEL smelled it. Behind an incandescent Glynn Watson Jr., who poured in 25 points, Villeurbanne detonated an 8–37 run that flipped the entire geometry of the game. What had been controlled suddenly became frantic. Watson eventually delivered the cleanest blow — a dagger three that effectively ended it, extinguishing Nancy’s last resistance.

Glynn WATSON JR.

25

PTS

4

REB

5

PDE

NAN

8288

ASV

Stéphane Gombauld, despite his 22 points, regretted this mental turning point.

« It’s a game we could have easily won. We played together and we surprised them. It’s a defeat that hurts. In the second half, they started playing physical and intense. On defense, they switched everything. We felt it was a different team. We lacked maturity. I hope the break will do us good. We need to take the next step and question ourselves. »

Pierric Poupet praises Nancy’s performance

On the Villeurbanne side, the reaction matched the stakes. Pierric Poupet didn’t fail to highlight the quality of the opponents’ first half.

« Nancy played an incredible first half. We took Gentilly’s energy and everything around it head-on and we were very shaky. In the second half we tightened the rotations. Shaquille Harrison had an incredible defensive game. »

Beyond the win itself, ASVEL showed why these games rarely slip away twice. They hardened the tone, ramped up the defensive pressure, switched more aggressively and turned every dribble into a decision. The adjustment wasn’t flashy — it was physical and persistent — and it gradually bent the game back in their direction.

For SLUC Nancy, the frustration has to sting. And yet, inside the loss sits something real: those first 25 minutes were not accidental. They were structured, sharp and high-level. The challenge now is less about ceiling than durability — stretching that standard across 40 minutes, especially coming out of the long pause created by the Leaders Cup and the international window.